1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a method for controlling an information processing apparatus, and a storage medium storing a program. More particularly, the present invention relates to a job management system capable of realizing variable print processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
As discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-296070, variable print processing includes reading variable data from a database, inserting the read data into predetermined areas of a template, and outputting a print product having content partly differentiated for each product.
In a first conventional printing method, a host computer combines a template with variable data and generates print data similar to ordinary print data. However, according to this method, the host computer repetitively transmits the same drawing content as part of page data. Thus, the host computer is required to process a great amount of data.
There is a second conventional printing method which defines a reusable object, such as Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML), and uses a data format capable of designating a reusable object as data of each page. For this method, a printer controller performs raster image processor (RIP) processing on a reusable object beforehand and starts print processing while performing RIP processing on data of each page.
The second conventional printing method can reduce a total amount of data transmitted from a host computer to the printer controller and can use the RIP processed data as cache data. Therefore, for the purpose of reducing a processing time, it is desirable to use PPML description language as the data format of the second conventional printing method.
In general, it is difficult to identify breakpoints of records in print jobs generated by variable print processing. The records typically are a series of print units of variable data. For example, in a variable print for processing a print job for a plurality of clients, the variable data of one client may be one record.
As another example, when job management is performed for a print job relating to variable prints for 10 people, personal data for 10 people (which may be 10 records) can be managed as one print job. Namely, if each record requires a print product composed of three sheets, the total number of pages for the print job (including the 10 records) is 30 pages. Thus, the print processing status of a single job including 30 pages to be printed is managed.
In this case, an operator can recognize the page number of a page currently being printed (e.g., the 10th page) according to the status of print processing. However, it is not easy to identify the number of records whose printing has been completed.
For example, an operator may request a reprint if printing of the 11th page failed or the quality of a print product deteriorates. In such cases, a variable print application cannot identify a page (such as a target record) to be reprinted.
According to the variable print discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-296070, if it is determined that division of a variable job is required based on print settings, a bookbinding application generates a job on a record-by-record basis.
However, if the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-296070 is used, the bookbinding application may output all records as one print job according to designated print settings. In particular, the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-296070 cannot manage the status of print processing on a record-by-record basis.
Thus, it would be desirable to realize a record-by-record basis management for a print job relating to a variable print.